Wine Advocate 93
Also outstanding, the Syrah Milbrandt Vineyard is 100% Syrah that spent 11 months in 25% new French oak. Impressive, with assorted dark fruits, ground herbs and distinct minerality, this medium to full-bodied structured and layered effort has fabulous richness and superb length. Enjoy it over the coming decade.

Vineyards
In 1997 Butch and Jerry Milbrandt planted their first grapevines in Washingtons Columbia Valley AVA. At first glance, Eastern Washington is not your typical wine country. Its a remote, windswept, high desert dotted with sagebrush and tumbleweeds. It also holds some of the most breath-taking terrain, ranging from deep river gorges to vast mountain ranges and undulating hills formed by Ice Age floods and ancient volcanoes. This wine is an hommage to the Milbrandt brothers, Butch and Jerry.
Clifton Vineyard: Owned and farmed by the Milbrandt family, this vineyard is a vigor limiting mix of stone strewn sand transitioning over the first two feet of soil to deep glacially deposited gravel. These soils are extremely well drained, allowing total control of the canopy.
Northridge: Koehler loamy fine sand over cemented silica; ancient pre-flood soils, a very unique 92 acre site on the Wahluke Slope. Planted in 2003.

VINTAGE:
The warmest vintage since 2003 cooled off just in time for harvest. The resulting wines were less likely to tip over into overripe flavors or high alcohol levels, and picking proceeded at a normal pace. Total tonnage was up about 5 percent over 2012, a record for the state. 2013 made us thank Sweet Baby Jesus that our white wine vineyards are cool sites at higher elevation. The very warm vintage cooled down in mid-September allowing us to pick at the perfect moment in the first week of October. This gave us generous full flavored wine while still keeping focus.